Picked up a bottle today on your recommendation....all I can say is it is a nice wine but to compare it to a Marquis-Phillips is like comparing Christine Aguilera to Britney Spears. NO Comparison. The McPherson is one dimensional, medium bodied, compared to full bodied and complex on the MP. Ok for big parties and cooking.

Whoops, I didn't mean to overstate my comparison. My "reminds me ..." was a modest nod to the nice touch of caramel and the general smoothness. Marquis-Phillips, it ain't. One's to quaff and one's to relish.

To give you a clue to my age, I went to a Judy Collins concert in DC where Emmylou Harris was the relatively unknown opening act. I was stuck with an extra ticket because my boyfriend couldn't get down from Pennsylvania that weekend. I sold it to a guy who was a personal friend of Emmylou and was going just to see her performance (I had never heard of her at that point). (I also knew a high school English teacher from Denver who knew Judy Collins and her family)

In this day and age of belly-buttons counting for more than talent, I guess Diana Krall and Jane Monheidt would be a Guigal "La Ladonne " or a Penfolds Grange. WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

Joe, you can Google her to learn a lot. As one example, her album "Return of the Grievous Angel, a tribute to Gram Parsons" is the best pop/rock/jazz/country album to be released in the last ten years.

Oh, you must learn about Emmylou. She is the beautiful grande dame of traditional/folk/country (think the very best of the O Brother soundtrack). She truly does have the voice of an angel and a kind and generous spirit to match her voice.

And of that genre, I would suggest that you also listen to Alison Krauss. Her song "Ghost In This House" from the "Forget About It" album will make you weep.

Regarding Diana Krall: I have come the closest that I possibly can to using the words "sexy" and "Canadian" in the same sentence.

I'll go ahead and do it for you. She's one sexy Canadian, and boy can she sing.

By the by, any of you jazz folks on here have an opinion on Norah Jones? She's also rather pleasant to look at. She's not traditional jazz, and it's not going to get me to toss out my "Bitches Brew" CD, but it's better than 99% of what you'll usually find on the radio.

Hi Dananne and glad you're hanging onto your Miles. I think NJ has a lot of latent talent. Look for her to really upgrade her material in the next few years as she can WAIL!.WW IK......Emmy Lou a JAZZ talent? A talent but, I'd like to hear her version of "Body" or "How High" before putting her in the jazz genre. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

NJ, while I like her stuff a lot, reminds me of Natalie Merchant - they both sound like it's almost too much trouble to sing. I think NJ gets past this early stage and learns that it's okay to speak up once in a while and becomes a big star for a long time. As for Emmylou, I've known her since we were both hanging out at the Childe Harold in DC, she trying to get anybody to notice her and me trying to play guitar. She took a ton of ambition and minimal pipes and expended all the effort in the world to learn singing. I think she's amazing. And, yes, she CAN sing jazz but thinks she can't.